Wizard tactics

Wizard
Starting a... Enhancements Tactics Equipment Spells

The Wizard: About

The Wizard is the do-anything (except healing) versatility spellcaster. All wizards compulsively scribe every scroll they meet. The wizard's most important contribution to a group is to cast a situation-specific spell to survive a particular challenge. This can mean Feather Fall, Sonic Resistance, Fire Immunity, or Invisibility. All of those spells are too rarely useful for a sorcerer to study but can sometimes be helpful.

Also, Wizards can elect to repair Warforged characters, while sorcerers won't usually learn that spell.

Therefore, the wizard player is the one with the greatest need for preparation. You must know better than anyone else which spells are required for which missions. Re-memorizing at shrines inside a mission can help, of course, so it might be a good idea to keep a shrine in reserve in an unfamiliar place.

A good wizard will also be the party's best friend, buffing everyone with spells such as Bull's Strength or Cat's Grace at low levels and Haste or Greater Heroism later on(always useful buffs throughout all levels). A wise use of your crowd control spells (such as Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Solid Fog, Hold Person, Mass or Hold Monster, Mass) to reduce the damage received by the party. Keep in mind which spells you're targeting at mobs although good hotbar management will help to stay efficient and organised. Use your fortitude-based spells for enemy spellcasters and your will-based spells at the warriors. Lastly, save your damaging spells for tougher mobs that your party would want to eliminate quickly.

Keep in mind that you can gain access to an assortment of debuffing spells which you can utilize to support other, more offensive spells. A reflex-based spell can successfully land much more easily if you hit an enemy with a Ray of Exhaustion first. Study the choices available to you, and find combinations best suited for what you're looking for.

Essential: Spells

Almost all groups will be wanting these spells and you're most likely going to be the one to have them:

• Blur
• Haste
• Wall of Fire (aka. Firewall)
• Protection from Energy
• Stoneskin wand - Available from The Twelve

Remember—in spite of being able to memorize every spell you may need—it's sometimes a good idea to carry stacks of scrolls for common spells. Generally, if there isn't a large difference in effect based on the scroll's caster level and your own and you don't need to cast it with metamagics, if's a candidate for use off a scroll or wand. Additionally, spells with a minimum level one level higher than your character can be cast off scrolls with a 95% success chance.

For targetable spells, put the scroll on a hotbar. If you want or need a buffing weapon offhand, make a weapon set, select the weapon set first, then the scroll.

Good examples for scroll or wand casting are:

• Summon Monster for your level or one level higher (at a slightly lower success rate).
• Master's Touch
• Repair spells
• Teleport/Greater Teleport
• Shadow Walk
• Create Undead

Other spells or Archmage spell-like-abilities are also good to use in combination.

• Hypnotism (1st level) is an excellent and cheap warm-up for any Will Save affecting spell. It reduces enemy Will Saves by -3, even if they save vs. Hypnotism.
• Solid Fog (4th level) is a good prelude for any spell requiring a reflex save. Solid Fog reduces reflex saves by -5 for enemies in the cloud. Slower casting, better for an ambush.
• Charm/Charm Monster is a good warm up for an Area of Effect (AoE) spell if cast before the enemies are aggroed. The mobs around the charmed enemy will usually close on the charmed enemy allowing the follow up AoE spell to have maximum effect.
• Web (1st level, SLA) is a good prelude to most AoE Damage-over-Time (DoT) spells. Holding the enemy in the DoT helps maximize damage.

And a last aspect to be fully aware of at all levels is how many skill points you invest into your Skills like Spellcraft as this can affect so much; your directional damage spells, your damage over time spells, your AOE spells - all are affected. Even as a supporting scroll caster when needs must is affected by how much UMD you have invested. Game concepts to fit into your build might be things like: Sagas as this is your free skill tome source enabling you to upgrade all your skills and leave you with more points to freely use in essential areas in order to enhance your build.

Playstyle: Methods

Naturally all members of a group take up their predetermined positions classically in a groups make up when advancing through a dungeon - melee's at the fore, casters in the middle, ranged and healers at the rear of the group, and this is the status quo for 90% of groups out there on the servers when running through any type of content with some exceptions determined by the dungeon itself.

This is where the wizard can really break the mold entirely but being right up front and leading a party's pace and kill count, in turn churning out more XP per minute etc., gaining more nice shiny named loot and enjoying a lot more content at a still enjoyable pace. The way in which to do this is to focus in specific areas and maximize your effect in those areas.

A wizards natural base stat is Intelligence, this is used for Spellcraft in turn being your 'nuke-power' for directional spells; good, focus on that, next: your spell school is dominated by necromancy based spells and a few that aren't that you can still attain high DC's in to be able to use them effectively - Finger, PWK, PK, Wail, Circle of Death, Undeath to Death - these are all 'instakill' spells and using them correctly will vastly increase your kill count, reduce drastically any party damage & deaths.

Alternatively, control the battlefield with crowd control and AOE spells, leading with a simple (heightened) Charm or Web spell and dropping an AOE to help the melees drop the enemy fast, save the healers on healing, and boost rogue DPS. Charm/Charm monster with a good DC and Augment Summons feat can turn the enemy casters into a liability for their own side, making the enemy tank themselves. Just keep your drop charm feat on the hotbar for when it's over.

The general theme here is 'Kill it and/or control it before can do anything' (even if the monster gets its saves up/deathblock on), keep practising that method and your game will expand greatly.

See also

• Guide to Pale Masters: Avoiding Light damage
• Wizard's handbook - Spell by spell review by a veteran